Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance
by AwayLemonade
Summary: Hermione, Harry and Ron find themselves in a situation where they could stop the war before it even had begun. They were thrown back to the summer of the Marauders sixth year. There was no way to get back, time needed to be re-written.


Disclaimer: This is the only disclaimer for this entire story! The characters here have been created and are owned by J.K Rowling no copyright intended.

Chapter One- Iens Tergum: Going Back

* * *

Brown eyes belonging to Hermione Granger slowly opened staring up bewildered up at the dark sky. Ever the academic she was trying to use the little light that trickled through behind the many branches to figure out if it was morning, afternoon or night. Unfortunately the branches were too tangled together making it a rather impossible feat. Taking in couple shaky breath she winced as she tilted her head downwards to look at her inner left ankle only to find it covered by the pant leg of her of her jeans. A dull ache throbbed in her head as she wondered why she wasn't wearing her school uniform. It took another moment for her to gathering her bearings and come to the startling realization that she wasn't alone, where ever she was. As she tried to breathe in deeply her broken ribs protested against the action causing her throw her head back to the ground while her mouth dropped open in a silent scream of pain.

_Mmmghft_. A deep grumble came from her right.

Once the ache had receded she squinted in the direction of where the noise had come from. Eventually she recognized the outline of a long lanky form that she could recognize anywhere. Facing her, lying on his side, was Ron Weasley! His blue eyes fluttered open briefly before rolling to the back of his head. It was very probable that he had promptly fainted after taking one good look at his broken left arm. Hermione checked him over as best she could without moving her own body. Other than the thin cut on his neck that had already started to bruise he was okay. If Ron was here then where was-? The abrupt movement to turn her head was too sudden; her body stiffened in respond to the unpleasant stinging sensation that came from the back of her neck.

_Ttsss. _A hiss escaped past her lips as her fingers carefully traced along the freshly opened wound. Pulling back her hand she noted the small amount of blood that had transferred during her inspection. It was just another one of those things that would have to be dealt with later.

Another blob like figure was laying face down to her left. His circular glasses were once again broken, which drew her attention to his to newly crooked nose. A small smile that came with the comprehension that she was still with her two best friends, the action however caused her chapped lips to crack. Black spots had begun to eat away at her vision making her feel rather sick. Focusing her attention elsewhere she spotted a familiar looking trinket, her brows furrowed as she struggled to read the inscription. She gasped before her brain could reason with her on why that wasn't such a smart idea. One word was off, just one- but alas she had succumbed to the blinding pain, drifting off in a state of unconsciousness.

* * *

There was a reason she had been trying to look at her ankle, her left one in particular. It was more of a habit when she woke up than anything. That's where her magical tattoo of the lunar cycles was located. It had been her early birthday, late Christmas present that Fred and George had taken her to get. She wasn't particularly thrilled with the notion of it to begin with but after being slipped copious amounts of Firewhiskey in her pumpkin juice she was to inebriated to do anything really. It was surprising how much she grew to adore the moving body art; it was located just above her ankle the size of a Galleon. The tattoo mimicked the real moon so precisely in sync that it was frightening. A plethora of spells and specially brewed magical ink had to be used in order to create something so spectacular. While she was lucky the twins had gone to a professional, no matter how fond she had become of them, she threatened to tear off their precious man-bits with her bare hands if they even _thought_ about doing something like that to her again.

Hermione was really grateful for the two troublemakers; they were the first ones who hadn't treated her any differently when the incident happened. Even her own parents… logically it was understandable, there was only so much her muggle parents could take in. They had been slowly growing apart for years ever since she was accepted into the magical world. A part of her wanted to be able to tell them of her experiences but they just wouldn't be able to relate to it. Instead she would ask them about their dentist business and how everything was going. They still treated her as their daughter when she was home but she couldn't help but feel like she was a outsider living there, or maybe even in a mental institution somewhere. It was just one of the reasons why she read through her next term's textbooks so quickly. She always feared that one day she would wake up from this dream and be just plain old boring Hermione, the books though, they were a tangible reminder that the Wizarding world was not just a fanciful figment of her imagination.

Though like many great things there was always a darker, uglier side to it. That thing also calls himself Voldemort, not even a week after summer vacation had started, three of his Death Eaters broke through the wards placed on her home. Hermione had been upstairs in her room when they attacked her parents. The Death Eaters made sure they weren't able to fight back by cursing them and then tying them up. As she crept downstairs wand in hand, ready to perform underage magic if needed, she heard one complain to another about the stupid order they had been given of not to kill the two worthless dirty muggles. Waving her wand in a complex and precise manner she successfully incapacitated one of the three masked wizards and disarmed the other before being spotted, dragged down the stairs and tackled to the ground. Her wand was tossed to the side after being torn from her vice like grip. Despite all her struggling and shrieking she was easily held down by the bigger man.

Her parents cried out her name and tried to call for help before being Silencio-ed. Even then they continued to cry out even though no sound would come out. Since she had been looking at her parents so she did not seen where the standing masked man had retrieved the metal case that proudly displayed a syringe. The clear light yellow thin substance sloshed around inside the needle getting her attention. When she had asked what it was the man above her chuckled saying she'll be finding out as soon as the full moon came out. Also if she wasn't a Mudblood he would have had his way with her before she was turned. His name was Mulciber, the one who kept checking the clock on the wall had called the one holding her down that. He said, "Avery you're a disgusting swine, shut your fat trap before this needle accidently slips into you-condemning your life and turning you into an abomination. Well more so than you already are."

With new vigor Hermione squirmed even more, her wand was literally just an arm's length away. She had only read about wandless magic, the only real spell she knew was the one that allowed a person to transform into their animagus form. Even then with the spell it was described to be more of a feeling, it was one of those things where either you felt it or you didn't. Trying to find the correct feeling was a long and arduous process too. Which was it backfired on many witches and wizards simply because they were not using the correct 'feeling' or because they weren't able to perform the wandless magic and therefore they could not accomplish the transformation. Afterwards it claimed you didn't even need the spell.

Ever since third year when Harry, Ron and She had learned about the possibility of turning into animagus they had tried to learn how to. If someone like Pettigrew could do it, they sure as hell could! It wasn't until fourth year when they had tangible evidence that there was a book that explained how to do it, of course their research was all put on hold because of the Triwizard tournament, but in fifth year after many hours spent after curfew, under the invisibility cloak, in the restricted section Ron (of all people) had been the one to find it.

A loud throaty moan was what brought her back to the situation that had become increasingly worse. Mulciber was getting turned on by her wriggling so he began to roughly grope her body. He asked the other one if Avery was still alive, receiving confirmation he then asked if there was enough time for him to have some fun with her. Fortunately for her, in a demented way the other man came to her rescue by announcing that it was time. Her body was tired from fighting back but her mind was racing as she tried to remember everything she had read about how to transform into an animagus, it was her only hope. Chanting the spell over and over again in her head she tried to ignore the needle was roughly inserted into the vein in her exposed right arm, clenching her teeth together as it was roughly jostled around. Just as she was able to latch onto the primal feeling that she didn't know if it had been there before- since she had attempted the transformation many times before, that was when the werewolf saliva was injected into her body, right when she was beginning to feel her body change.

If you asked her to explain what had happened, even she would have a hard time explaining it or proving that her assumption was correct. What she could tell you was that at the exact same moment as she tried to transform for the first time into an animagus the saliva of a werewolf (which causes Lycanthropy) was also introduced to her blood causing a perplexing reaction to occur.

Waves of magic violently pulsed inside her body as she continued to be held down by Mulciber. Both men looked at each other wondering if it had failed- if _they _had failed. They were going to flee from the scene when she turned but it didn't look like anything was happening so they stayed, that was probably the biggest mistake they could have made.

Her body had changed in a matter of seconds. The sudden sound of her clothes tearing, bones snapping and reforming had filled the room; and when a long furry tail spouted out of her tailbone that's when she knew the transformation was complete. Acting on instincts alone her jaws latched onto Mulciber's throat, feeling a strange sadistic pleasure as she felt the bones collapse under the slightest pressure. She tossed his lifeless body to the side when he had stopped his infernal screaming. Paying homage to the moon she stood on her newly formed hind legs and howled loudly in triumph. Her eyes shifted and latched onto the masked man who was trying to escape. She knew she had to keep him from doing so and pounced on top of him, knocking his wand out of his hand and batted the mask off his face revealing Antonin Dolohov.

She knew this because he was the very same man who had hit her with a non verbal curse in the Department of Mysteries! She didn't know what spell he had used but it had kept her from assisting her friends. If that had not happened perhaps Sirius would still be alive. A loud snarl irrupted from her throat when she thought of it. Her bloodied jaws had dripped bloodstained saliva onto his quivering form. He was probably regretting not running away immediately after injecting her and then standing around watching transfixed as Mulciber was killed. Now he too was going to be torn to pieces by a werewolf. Fortunately for him she had settled for pressing her paw down upon his neck cutting off his air supply until he passed out.

After the momentary loss of control directly after she had transformed she was surprised that she still had the ability to recognize things! Like whom she was and who others were, good and bad, right and wrong. She sniffed Dolohov's neck suspiciously before confirming that he was truly out cold before climbing off of the man. Picking his abandoned wand up with her teeth she snapped it into thirds and did the same to the one's belonging to the others. She used her clawed hand to pick up her own wand and waved it in the direction of her parents to get rid of their bindings. Instead of words a bunch of short barks and growls exited her mouth. It must have been a ridiculous sight to see. Only Mr. and Mrs. Granger didn't seem so amused. Actually they were nowhere near amused; she could smell it, their perspiration meant they were nervousness and the other scent mixed in was their extreme fear- of her.

Their faces pale, eyes so wide, mouths slacked open in sheer terror at the monster that their little girl had turned into. They were no longer silently screaming fearing for her, but in fear of her. Hermione would never forget the looks upon their faces; it was forever burned into her memory. More incomprehensible sounds came from her mouth as she tried to tell them that she wanted to get them free. It only resulted in them panicking. She had spent all night trying to get them to calm down. In the end it only worked against her.

The ministry officials never showed up to apprehend her for using underage magic. The wards had been tampered with making it conceal what was going on inside. She had turned back into Hermione before Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks and Shacklebolt had come. Snape had tipped them off after he had found out about the plan, as soon as he got back from a Death Eater meeting, which was sometime in the morning. The three Order members could tell it was too late though. All it had taken was one look at her naked backside, the mauled man, and the dried blood around her mouth, in her hair and on the walls for them to piece together what had happened. They were so surprised that the house hadn't been torn to bits and that there were people were still alive. Well expect for that one guy whose throat had been savagely torn out.

Hermione had tried to explain that she was still the same Hermione but her parents wouldn't listen to her. It hurt so much to see them flinch when she approached them. She opted to have the memory oblivated from their minds. The damage to the room was fixed, she was cleaned up and clothed and it was as if nothing ever happened. The Grangers were then fed some lie about her being enrolled in a new summer school program Hogwarts was offering and if it was alright for her to attend. They smiled and nodded waving her off telling her to write to them. As soon as they walked out the front door she promptly collapsed from all the strain her body had undergone and was brought to the Burrow.

The amount of days she laid trying to recover was uncertain but when she was fit enough to stay awake she noticed that everyone had started acting differently around her. They were suddenly unsure of how to treat her, and tried to hide their discomfort but that made it even more painfully obvious. It also made her miss her cat Crookshanks even more. She had found out that the half- Kneazle had been killed by one of the three Death Eaters, after attacking Avery (they found multiple claw marks on his leg) while trying to protect the occupants of the house from the intruders. Bless his soul may he rest in peace.

So she often found herself sitting alone in the room she always shared with Ginny when she visited. During her third conscious week at the Burrow, book laid forgotten in her lap, out of sheer boredom she grabbed onto the feeling she had before she had transformed and felt her body shift into that of a bigger stronger creature. Using the small dirty mirror in the room she could see that almost everything looked like it belonged to a very large wolf that was completely covered in a wild mess of a thick dark rich brown fur. The only differences were the elongated arms and legs. Along with the other changed she noticed was that her eyes had turned a dark grey color. The feeling of power was magnificent as she felt it rippling through the muscles in the larger form. The change was much more uncomfortable than what she had expected seeing Sirius turn into Snuffles so many times, it must have come with years of practice. She also had to get use to the fact her senses were now on overload (more than previous since all of her senses had increased) she would smell and hear things she normally couldn't. Transforming back was even worse, she felt weak, insignificant and tired so that day she dragged herself back to bed.

The next time she woke up it was to the faces of Fred and George leaning over her. "We," Fred said gesturing to himself and George, "Have come-"

"-To rescue you," George finished sticking his index finger in front of her face, on the verge of poking her left eye. "-Can't have your brilliant mind wither away, while you sit in this boring room all day."

"What a waste that would be George! The second best feature of Granger-" Fred spoke loudly punching his hand into the palm of his other one.

"-Gone! I know right? Doesn't even bother coming down for meals anymore-" George commented sadly.

"-Hurt our feelings you have! Oi, are you mute as well too? This will be a lot harder now, didn't even think of factor this into the plan. Did we George?"

"Nope wasn't considered a possibility." Hermione had been just waiting for them to leave after a few moments, just like Ron and Ginny had. They must have had better things to do. It was summer break after all.

"Looking out the window won't solve your life problems love. Course you can see Gin and Ronnikins playing Quidditch, that bloody wanker so emotionally constipated that he's scared to talk to you."

"Aren't you?" She had asked quietly fidgeting with the fraying old sheet in her lap.

"So she does speak! Finally! For a moment there I thought we'd have to resort to other means, and why should we be you're still the same-" George smirked.

"-Granger, cept now you can actually tear people apart physically," Fred acted out the 'tearing' of something before tapping his finger to his head, "as well as mentally, that's rather nifty if you ask-"

"-us. Look we do have another reason for talking to you. We're not going to hide that from you, so we'll just ask you upfront-" George nodded thoughtfully.

"-We want you to help up to develop some of our products for the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes!" Fred propositioned sitting on the edge of her bed one of his legs crossed over the other.

"The what?" She asked confused tugging her sleeve down lower to cover the gruesome scar that was left as a reminder the exact location where the needle had been.

"The joke store we're going to open! Now we know you've never ever approved of our pranks but-" George answered sitting down on the opposite side coping the same position as Fred.

"-You're the smartest witch of the age. Surely you can help us! We're down on our knees begging you!" And suddenly they were, with their elbows now resting on the mattress, their hands clasped tightly together in prayer.

"You're the only one we can trust with this top secret information!-" George cried out.

"We're not even asking our own siblings help us. Even though Ron is… well Ron and Ginny she'll use it as blackmail and blab it out to mum! They're not worthy!"

"What me so worthy enough so you think that I won't blackmail you also?" She grinned for what felt like the first time in ages which it probably was.

"Now you've done it! You shouldn't have mentioned that to her that Fred!"

"This is Hermione Granger we're talking about. Not a bad bone in her body this one, course we can easily change that can't we?" Fred's lips twisted up in a devious smile. The glint in his eyes promised much mischief and mayhem.

"That is only if she accepts our offer in the first place, we shouldn't get our hopes up to high-" George shook his head.

"-of right, course not. I mean why else would someone like Granger help _us_ out. We're just the twins paling in comparison to all our other brothers-" Fred agreed a frown suddenly on his face.

"-we're just doing all these things in hopes of get a little bit of attention from someone as talented as she is-"

"-with real beauty and smarts. That's why we said your intelligence is your second best feature Granger." Fred actually sounded sincere, even to her ears.

"So what exactly would I be helping you with?" She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "I'm not going to be a test subject am I? Because you can just forget it-"

"Goodness gracious of course not, never you-" George sounded rather appalled at the notion.

"-Probably Ron, has half a brain that one, or we'll test it on ourselves," Fred shrugged noncommittally. "As for what you will be doing-"

"-that will only be revealed to you when you accept."

"Which if I were you I'd do it straightaway. As much as George and I would love to sit in Ginny's room and stare at your pretty face all day-"

"We've got a whole list of things waiting to be done."

"Alright, get out." Hermione gave in. It was something to do. Maybe she could even learn a thing or two from them. They were obviously talented and though she'd never admit it out loud: their creations were really clever.

"B-bu-but we're being honest-" George stuttered taken aback at what he assumed was sudden hostility.

"Truly we are! If ever for the first times in our lives-" Fred confessed.

"We're not going to give up on you!"

"We'll just continue pestering you until-"

"Merlin's beard! I decided I was going to help. I just need you to leave the room so I can put some pants on." She had meant to keep that last part to herself.

"No pants eh?"

"Get out!" She had laughed while throwing her pillows at them.

* * *

"Didn' know wha' ta do Headmaster Dumbledore, foun' 'em out 'ere in tha middle o' tha forest like dis!" A familiar loud booming voice assaulted her ears. "Thought dis one 'ere was that Potter boy!"

"The resemblance is rather uncanny."

"Very odd markin's on all o' 'der necks don't cha think? Wonder wha' made 'em. That reminds me I foun' dis doodad by 'em." There was a rustling as Hagrid searched through his pockets for the strange looking object he had picked up.

"Curious," Dumbledore exclaimed as he held the now broken artifact in his wrinkled hands. "Let's bring them back to the Infirmary so that Poppy can fix them up. We will need to keep a watchful eye on them."

"Can't 'elp but wonder wha' they're doin' out 'ere of all places! Wonder 'ow they got 'ere. It's only tha middle o' August and 'der all bundled up like they was gettin' ready fo' winter or somethin', lucky for 'em no creature was out 'der lookin' fo' easy pickin's."

* * *

Slowly it was starting to come back to Hermione. It was in the middle of the year and it had been a Hogsmeade weekend. That's why she wasn't donning her normal Gryffindor attire. She had just gotten the owl McGonagall had sent with her updated transcript, the envelope seemed thicker that normal but she didn't have time to look at it before Ron hollered at her from the common room that they were going to miss the carriages. Thinking she'd have some time to look at it later she placed it into her school bag and brought it along with her. Before they left Harry had gotten a strange feeling from his scar so he checked the Marauder's Map and spotted Peter Pettigrew coming out from girl's lavatory on the second floor.

With invisibility cloak in hand they took off following the moving target and before they knew it they were deep within the forbidden forest where Ron decided to shift to his animagus form, which was a Jack Russell Terrier, in hopes of catching Pettigrew. Harry soon followed in suit since his form was less conspicuous, than her werewolf one, allowing her to climb up onto his back, the cloak covering the upper half of her body while his bat like wings hid her legs from plain view. Harry's animagus was a Thestral, it was magnificent in its own way and suited him. She believed that the form had something to do with a reaction to Voldemort's magic.

After finding out that she had become a werewolf Harry and Ron finished learning how to become animagi as a surprise for her on her birthday; they wanted to join her on the full moons so she didn't feel lonely. They really were the best friends she could ever ask for.

Eventually Ron had managed to catch the pudgy rat who decided to transform back into his balding human figure. Pettigrew let out excited twitches and squeaks of excitement as he explained to the small dog that he had been able to find _it_. Harry and Hermione tensed as Pettigrew grabbed Ron by the scruff of the neck and held him eye level to the object hanging from his neck. Almost a second later he dropped Ron back down cackling madly exclaiming that he was going to get the other half of his pay while patting his small budging pocket that jingled merrily. His eyes continued to dart around suspiciously his laughs becoming nervous ones- a paranoid look then crossed his face as he drew his wand and held it to the dog's throat. Before a spell was even uttered Harry (no longer a Thestral) had his wand drawn and roared the first spell that came to his mind- the killing curse. As soon as the acidic green light erupted from the tip of his wand and hit the target Harry dropped his wand as if it had burned him. He had taken the life of another person using the same method that took both his mum and dad away.

There was that same look of horror on his face as her parents had on their faces when they had seen what she had become. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders tightly she held him to her as he looked down in horror at his shaking hands. After what could have only been a couple of moments Ron scrambled over to them holding in his hands a tarnished silver hourglass necklace as well as a small strange bag that was completely crusted over with grime and dirt. Harry realizing that the necklace was a Time Turner, pocketed his wand, and told them they needed to go back to stop himself from killing Pettigrew. Against her better judgment Hermione nodded as she remember the guilt that consumed her after she had killed that man, although it wasn't really her fault and they were in middle of a war- and he would have killed her and her family with a smile upon his face. Heck the reason why they had let her parents live was in hopes that when she was turned that she would kill them herself- but she wasn't like that!

The use of a Time Turner had been made illegal and all the other known ones had been destroyed by the Ministry but this one had survived somehow. Since they were going to use it on Hogwarts school grounds they would not be detected for using the device.

Harry placed the chain of the time turner around everyone's necks mumbling that two hours should be enough time. They would catch Pettigrew just as he was coming out of the girl's bathroom. Maybe if she hadn't been so preoccupied with folding up the cloak and placing it- along with the Marauder's map, into her bag; she might have been more aware of the time turner had been drawing out something white and wispy from Pettigrew's body. It had just finished doing so when Harry twisted the dial and the change happened immediately. The light colored sand was stained blood red, the silver became pitch black and it an emitted an eerie green glow. Harry let go by accident, out of shock just a little bit shy of two complete turns because his nerves had been frayed. The world started spinning at an incredible rate around them. Many creatures rewound backwards, days turned into nights, seasons changed and trees slowly shrunk back into the earth. No one could tell how long they had been in the vortex when the spinning finally stopped. Their bodies were thrown roughly against the ground. The necklace chain sliced into their necks prior to snapping after being forced in too many different directions. Blood red sand from the hourglass spilled out of the broken container as it smashed into a jagged stone.

* * *

A/N: I don't actually remember what happened too well in the fifth book, I want you all to know that stopped reading after that. I just remembered not liking J.K Rowling's writing while reading that story. I do know the gist of what happened in the 6th book onwards and do use some themes from the other books but not all; it will be explained in the story. Please remember to leave a review. It gives me feedback and I'll be more inclined to update quicker. If you have any inquires feel free to leave them in a review or PM me.

I think I was able to capture Gred and Feorge pretty well but I'd like to know what did you think?


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